


Steve hearts Danny

by cromarty



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Candy, Candy Hearts, Established Relationship, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-15
Updated: 2011-02-15
Packaged: 2019-11-14 17:10:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18056654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cromarty/pseuds/cromarty
Summary: The day candy conversation hearts went on sale, briefly sharing shelf space with marked-down Christmas trinkets, Steve started buying them.





	Steve hearts Danny

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in February of 2011, between eps 117 and 118, and then just never posted it, I guess, although I could have sworn I had. Posted in March 2019.

     There are two things that Steve has learned in the past year that are instrumental to this plan: A) Danny loves conversation hearts, and B) Danny loves romantic gestures, despite the cynical complaining he does. Steve gathered ample evidence for both of these facts in the past year, since the day Kono forced them, not quite literally at gunpoint, to go on a Valentine’s Day date with each other. It’s been a great year, Steve thinks they are totally on the same page, and so tactical ops planning began sometime in early January. The day candy conversation hearts went on sale, briefly sharing shelf space with marked-down Christmas trinkets, Steve started buying them. The cupboard under his staircase slowly filled up with bags and boxes. Steve snuck away every chance he got to sort through them methodically--first separating the orange ones (“What is the goddamn point of non-orange candy hearts?! The other flavors all taste like chalk or worse!” Danny had enlightened him last year) and then carefully searching for appropriate specimens with just the right message. Sometimes the sorting was kind of fun, since the different brands had a lot of strange sayings (“GO GO GO,” “RACE ME,” “TWEET ME,” “SUN SHINE”) but as February 14 approached it was less fun and more frustrating.

     Finally, just in the nick of time, he had amassed a largeish pile of orange conversation hearts with the right message. Monday morning he woke Danny up with a kiss and handed him one. “Mmmm thanks babe,” he murmured, and popped it into is mouth, eyes still closed against the day. Steve should have known better, Danny had never been a morning person. He showered and changed while Danny still rolled around in bed, stretching and trying to wake himself up, and ran downstairs for Contingency plan Bravo.  
     By the time Danny stumbled downstairs dressed and in search of coffee, there was a stack of pancakes with a heart place right on top. This one Danny plopped into his coffee instead of a sugar packet. Steve frowned slightly. He must be getting rusty in the reserves, because for all he was prepared by having back up hearts ready (376, to be exact), it had never occurred to him that Danny had no interest in actually reading them. Wasn’t that the point of conversation hearts? The candy wasn’t good enough for them to be popular on their own. Danny looked up from his pancakes, squinted at Steve’s face, blinked in recognition, and leaned over the table to kiss him.  
“Sorry, babe, happy Valentine’s day. I didn’t really forget, you know what I’m like in the morning.” Steve smiled to hide the fact that Danny had, for once, misread his expression, and fingered the ziploc of hearts in his cargo pocket.

     At the Five-0 office, Steve felt a little silly leaving hearts around for Danny. Kono and Chin were too perceptive to miss the gesture for long, and as long as Danny kept automatically popping the hearts into his mouth without looking at them, Steve’s secret plan was screwed. He was on heart contingency plan Whiskey and contemplating actually downing a glass when Kono sidled up behind him so stealthily he squeaked a little at noticing her.  
“What you got there, Boss?” she asked, smirking and gesturing to the pocket he was tapping. Part of being a good leader is knowing how to use the skills of your team, so Steve glanced over at Danny’s office to make sure he was busy and ushered Kono into his own.

     Kono, thankfully, had not laughed at him, but her affectionate sympathy at his plight was almost worse. She promised Danny would appreciate the gesture once he caught on and left to brief Chin on Operation Sugar Coma (formerly [Operation Orange Hearts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Blue_Hearts), but at the rate Danny was going....) while Steve regrouped.

“How many?” Chin asked as he walked into Steve’s office.  
“23.”  
“No, how many hearts did you sort out?”  
“Oh, 378. But I didn’t think I’d actually need them all.”  
Chin shook his head fondly. “Just ask him, brah. He’ll say yes, and you won’t have to resort to anything crazy. Well, crazier than that, anyway.” He pointed to the gallon bag of orange hearts sitting in Steve’s lap.

     Despite Chin’s advice and his own training, Steve stuck to his failing plan all day. At 4:30, after changing his shirt and just throwing away the one splotched with pina colada and Blue Hawaii, courtesy of chasing a suspect through the middle of a tourist trap bar, Steve decided to go with the classic Surge tactic. He walked into Danny’s office and plunked a bowl, filled with exactly 214 orange conversation hearts, on top of the file Danny had open. Danny grinned up at him and stuffed a handful in his mouth at once.  
“You know,” he mumbled around the candy, “it’s not that I don’t appreciate the gesture, babe, but are you trying to give me cavities?”

     Just precisely at that moment, it was possible that Steve wanted to break all of Danny’s teeth. It had been _weeks_ of work, and here he was completely missing the point, for the 165th time. Steve snorted in frustration and threw up his hands.  
“Will you just _read_ them, Danny? GOD!” He whipped around to pace in front of Danny’s desk. This was a big thing those little hearts were asking (commanding, actually, as they didn’t have question marks) and the tension of asking but not asking and not getting an answer was making Steve crazy. As he turned on his heel he saw Danny spit some hearts out in an orange puddle on his hand.  
“No, Danny, the pink’s rubbed off all of those!” He stomped over and shoved the bowl closer to Danny, then had a minor heart attack when Danny’s eyes widened and he choked on the mouthful of candy. Steve ran around the desk, ready to perform the Heimlich maneuver, but Danny just coughed all the hearts out in a disgusting, drooly puddle onto his desk and glared at Steve.  
“You idiot,” he said, half angry, half fond, and a little hoarsely. “You could have just asked instead of setting me up to choke to death.” Steve shrugged in defeat.  
“It seemed more romantic this way,” he mumbled lamely. Danny smirked at and grabbed a MARRY ME heart to pop into Steve’s mouth, then kissed him. “So that’s a yes?” Steve asked, pulling away a little.  
“Seriously, you could not be more of an idiot,” Danny whispered, and kissed him again. Steve decided that orange conversation hearts tasted a little like victory.


End file.
